Turkish plane skids off Mumbai airport runway

Mumbai: A Turkish plane with 97 passengers and crew on board skidded off the taxiway near the main runway at the Mumbai airport early Friday, leading to the main runway being shut down. There were no injuries.

"The Turkish Airways flight TK-720 was arriving from Istanbul to Mumbai. Soon after landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, it skidded off the rapid exit taxiway N8 and got stuck in the mud there," an official told a news agency.

The skidding of the Airbus A340-300, which has led to the closure of the main runway for more than six hours, resulted in the diversion of at least two flights and several flights being delayed.

A flight from Sharjah, G9-0407, was diverted to Ahmedabad at 4.14 am. It later returned to Mumbai at 7.33 am. A cargo aircraft, SQ-7955, on a Chicago-Brussels-Mumbai flight was diverted to Chennai at 5.21 am.

All normal flight operations have been shifted to the secondary runway since the incident at 4.13 am.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) examined the aircraft, an official said.

The Turkish airliner has been stuck in the mud off the runway, blocking a section of the main runway after it skidded and veered off post-landing.

With the secondary runway now being used, departures are suffering an average delay of 30 minutes, while arrivals are being delayed by around 15 minutes, the official added.

Meanwhile efforts are underway to remove the stranded aircraft from the position and resume normal flight operations.